Notes on Radical Hope; or, The Ethical Turn in Anthropology

Abstract

Abstract:Examining Greg Beckett’s 2019 There Is No More Haiti: Between Life and Death in Port-au-Prince, this critical essay explores the notion of radical hope in the midst of tragedy and crisis in Haiti. It attempts to reframe the idea of hope from the perspective of a Haitian American who studies Haiti through the lens of literary texts and within a global analysis, arguing that Beckett’s book is more than an anthropological study of crisis; it is an act of memorializing the various ways a generation reflects on the idea of hope. The author’s reading of There Is No More Haiti calls for more critical studies on what Haitians can teach us about the importance of hope in times of disaster, about the understanding of hope as a pervasive feeling.